Lost Over $2000
I was one of the many unlucky kids suckered into this scam. I remember it clearly. My sophomore year in college, a very polite, well dressed woman came into my Stats class to pass out surveys and talked about some sort of meeting for internships. I didn't pay much attention, but I filled out the survey and forgot about it.
After Christmas break in January, I had forgotten all about that woman, until I received a phone call Sunday evening from her. She explained that she was from Southwestern and was setting up small meetings so she could tell us about the program. I agreed to go. When I arrived, there were tons of kids there. She told us how exciting it would be, how great it would look on a resume, and how much money we would make. She also said it was a tough job, and not everyone could do it. If we wanted to interview for it, we could sign a sheet and meet with her or her other Southwestern partner James*. I had to go through 3 interviews, call various southwestern "alumni", write essays, and finally, after all that, I was accepted, along with maybe 20 other students at my University.
From there, we met weekly from Jan to April, when school ended. We would rehearse all these different speeches to say at the door to try and sell books. All the while, the Managers would tell us how great this would be.
Finally, we all drove from MI to sales school in Nashville. That’s when reality set in. I had already spent money on gas, new clothes, food, hotel bills, you name it. Sales school was a joke. They made us run constantly everywhere, we ate pb&j every single day, rarely had time for sleep, we were yelled at if we didn’t memorize everything perfectly.
Once we got to our selling state, Minnesota, things really fell apart. In one week, I was screamed at, had the cops called on me, a dog attacked me, and I lost more and more money. I made almost no sales either. At the end of the first week, I was taken aside by my manager, where she asked me over and over, why I was doing badly, and she was angry too. She said I needed to sell to more people, even when the areas I was assigned to had older families. I resorted to lying about stats so I wouldn't get yelled at. I was absolutely miserable, broke and alone. I felt like the company lied to us about what would happen. I didn’t stay very long, as I drove 12 hours back home to MI after they tried to keep me there and made me feel bad for leaving. Overall, 3 of the 20 stayed. I was never paid for what I sold. Bad, bad experience. I lost over $2000 overall.
Received: December 4, 2008
